Circuit 3 Recap: The Result That Shaped the Season
With the end of the regular season approaching, let's remind you of what's happened so far.
No single circuit did more to define the destination of the MPFL 2026 title than Circuit 3. On the second matchday, Selangor beat Johor Darul Ta'zim 5-3, Evandro Borges scoring three times, in a result that stands, months on, as the only defeat suffered by JDT all season. It arrived on the same weekend as one of the campaign's most dramatic individual matches: KL City led ATM 4-1 at half-time before conceding four second-half goals, including two penalties from Muhammad Bukhari, to draw 5-5, a game further shaped by the sending-off of ATM's head coach in the first half.
The rest of the circuit continued the pattern set by the season's opening weeks. Pahang Rangers beat KL City 6-1 and USM 7-1, Rodrigo Da Silva scoring in both matches, while JDT's other result of the circuit, a 9-1 win over PFA Odin Sarawak inspired by a Mahadir Harahap hat-trick, underlined the gulf between the division's leading sides and its newer additions. Selangor, before their meeting with JDT, had already beaten Terengganu 7-0 to maintain their unbeaten start.
ATM's involvement in the circuit's headline draw came either side of a heavier result of their own, a 6-0 win over Wipers built on a Muhammad Bukhari hat-trick, the pivot's first sign of the form that would eventually take him to nine goals in seven matches and, later in the season, to a move across the division to JDT itself. Terengganu shared the points with PFA Odin Sarawak in a 2-2 draw, one of the few competitive results involving either side that circuit.
With the season's most significant single result now on the board, Circuit 3 left the table with a shape that would prove remarkably durable: Selangor unbeaten and clear, JDT its closest and increasingly distant challenger, and Pahang Rangers establishing themselves as the best of the rest.
